Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

I am about to make my first casing with corn. I want to put verm on bottom and them verm/coco on top. Should I sterilize both the verm and verm/coir before i use them? And, will the little bit of corn with no growth on it form being pressed against the jar matter? The corn is 99.9999% done, there is just a little non-colonized from being against the glass. And, is there anything that I am forgetting? I hope not, I plan to do this in mabye an hour. ANy help is very much appriciated. Thanks--Chinaboy

Verm. should be sterile straight from the bag due to the process it goes through during its making. It well exceeds the temp. for sterilizing things. So thats totally up to you. I usually don't sterilize just straight verm. The verm/coir i would at least pasteurize. If there is ANY uncolonized pieces of corn and you birth that stuff you need to get them out of there cause they will most likely contam.

Well, I chickened out on making my first casing today and thought I'd wait to see if the jars would colonize further. I also re-checked casing procedures so I don't mess anything up. In two days I'll give it the go and let you know how things happen!

I didn't wait two days, I had time and did it today, one day later. The corn against the glass didn't do anything so I cases the substrate in a 50/50 mix on top and bottom. I sprayed each casing layer with water and h2o2 to add some moisture and help keep out contams. I'm going to wait a couple of days to see what happens to it and then start doing some more of the colonized jars.